Category Archives: Transhuman News

ScienceDaily (Oct. 16, 2012) With all the prepackaged gardening kits on the market, an exceptionally green thumb isn't necessary to grow your own tasty fresh vegetables here on Earth. The same may hold true for U.S. astronauts living and working aboard the International Space Station when they receive a newly developed Vegetable Production System, called VEGGIE for short, set to launch aboard SpaceX's Dragon capsule on NASA's third Commercial Resupply Services mission next year.

"Our hope is that even though VEGGIE is not a highly complex plant growth apparatus, it will allow the crew to rapidly grow vegetables using a fairly simple nutrient and water delivery approach," said Howard Levine, Ph.D. and chief scientist, NASA's Kennedy Space Center International Space Station Research Office.

Gioia Massa, a postdoctoral fellow in the Surface Systems Group of Kennedy's Engineering Directorate, has been working with the International Space Station Research Office to validate the VEGGIE hardware here on Earth before it takes flight next year.

"VEGGIE could be used to produce faster-growing species of plants, such as lettuce or radishes, bok choy or Chinese cabbage, or even bitter leafy greens" Massa said. "Crops like tomatoes, peas or beans in which you'd have to have a flower and set fruit would take a little longer than a 28-day cycle."

It may not sound like a big deal to us Earthlings who can just run out to our local produce stand or supermarket when we have a hankering for a salad, but when you're living 200 miles above the surface of the planet, truly fresh food only comes a few times a year.

"When the resupply ships get up there, the fresh produce gets eaten almost immediately," Massa said.

Weighing in at about 15 pounds and taking up the space of a stove-top microwave oven, the stowable and deployable VEGGIE system was built by Orbital Technologies Corporation, or ORBITEC, in Madison, Wis. The company designed the system to enable low-maintenance experiments, giving astronauts the opportunity to garden recreationally.

"Based upon anecdotal evidence, crews report that having plants around was very comforting and helped them feel less out of touch with Earth," Massa said. "You could also think of plants as pets. The crew just likes to nurture them."

In simple terms, the VEGGIE system works like this: Clear Teflon bellows that can be adjusted for plants as they grow are attached to a metal frame housing the system's power and light switches. A rooting pillow made of Teflon-coated Kevlar and Nomex will contain the planting media, such as soil or claylike particles, along with fertilizer pellets. Seeds either will be preloaded in the pillows on Earth or inserted by astronauts in space. To water the plants, crew members will use a reservoir located beneath the pillows and a root mat to effectively add moisture through an automatic wicking process.

VEGGIE is set to join other plant growth facilities that vary in size and complexity, such as the Lada greenhouse unit and the ABRS, short for Advanced Biological Research System. VEGGIE is the simplest of the three designs, but has the largest surface area for planting and is expected to produce data on a more regular basis. Levine noted that the ability to grow plants in microgravity has really evolved throughout the past decade.

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Space station investigation to test fresh food experience

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Aki Hoshide

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Aki Hoshide, Expedition 33 flight engineer, works near the airlock in the Kibo laboratory of the International Space Station. The Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (SSOD) previously installed on the Multi-Purpose Experiment Platform (MPEP) is visible in the airlock. This image was released Oct. 4, 2012.

Several tiny satellites float in front of the ISS in this image by an Expedition 33 crew member from the International Space Station. This image was taken Oct.4, 2012.

The satellites were released outside the Kibo laboratory using a Small Satellite Orbital Deployer attached to the Japanese module's robotic arm on Oct. 4, 2012. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Aki Hoshide, flight engineer, set up the satellite deployment gear inside the lab and placed it in the Kibo airlock.

Several tiny satellites float in front of the ISS in this image by an Expedition 33 crew member from the International Space Station. This image was taken Oct.4, 2012.

Several tiny satellites are featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 33 crew member on the International Space Station. The satellites were released outside the Kibo laboratory using a Small Satellite Orbital Deployer attached to the Japanese module's robotic arm on Oct. 4, 2012.

Small Satellite Orbital Deployer (SSOD) attached to the Japanese module's robotic arm is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 33 crew member on the International Space Station. Several tiny satellites were released outside the Kibo laboratory using the SSOD on Oct. 4, 2012.

The satellites were released outside the Kibo laboratory using a Small Satellite Orbital Deployer attached to the Japanese module's robotic arm on Oct. 4, 2012.

Several tiny satellites are featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 33 crew member on the International Space Station on Oct. 4, 2012.

The Cubesat mission expands and introduces new utilization of the JEM using JEMRMS and JEM AL, which are unique features of the JEM module. The main purpose of this mission is to establish processes and procedures for satellite verifications, integration of the satellites, launching satellites to ISS, and deploying satellites into the space.

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Tiny Satellites Launch From Space Station (Photos)

Astronauts on the International Space Station have transformed their high-flying laboratory into a new kind of launch pad for tiny satellites in a bid to boost student interest and access to space.

This month, the space station's Expedition 33 crew launched five tiny Cubesats, each only a few inches wide, using a small satellite orbital deployer from Japan's space agency JAXA. They were the first Cubesat satellites ever launched from the International Space Station, coming 2 1/2 years after NASA announced the CubeSat program.

"This was a learning experience for everyone," said Andres Martinez, the NASA Ames project manager for one of the satellites.

The cubesats were launched from the station's Japanese Kibo laboratory on Oct. 4, which also marked the 55th anniversary of the world's first satellite launch in 1957 that placed Russia's Sputnik 1 in orbit and ushered in the Space Age. [Photos: Tiny Satellites Launch from Space Station]

"Fifty-five years ago we launched the first satellite from Earth. Today we launched them from a spacecraft," space station commander Sunita Williams of NASA said on launch day to mark the moment. "Fifty years from now, I wonder where we'll be launching them from."

The JAXA satellite-deploying device arrived at the station aboard a Japanese cargo ship in July. Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide placed the deployer, which is about the size of a small rabbit cage, into a small airlock in the Kibo lab. Then, the astronaut sealed the airlock, opened it up to space, and commanded the station's Kibo robotic armto pick up the deployer and bring it outside for satellite deployment.

All told, the procedure took only four hours of astronaut time with no spacewalk required.

"If you can imagine, deploying satellites from station can be quite risky," Martinez said. "We were going through that whole experience of conducting analysis to ensure this would be something safe to do from station, not only from the point of deployment but also taking up the satellites inside station."

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Space Station Opens Launch Pad for Tiny Satellites